


The Day After

by zephsomething



Series: Surviving the War [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-02
Updated: 2017-09-02
Packaged: 2018-12-22 17:28:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11972175
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zephsomething/pseuds/zephsomething
Summary: Luna and Ginny help each other through the day after the Battle of Hogwarts





	The Day After

Luna was sitting on the roof of the astronomy tower when Ginny finally found her, brick dust still coating her robes and her hair. Ginny climbed up next to her before speaking. “You’ve been here all night.”

“Did you know that stars die?” Luna pointed vaguely towards the edge of the sky that wasn’t quite light yet. “Their light still shines for years after.”

“Come downstairs. You need to eat.” Ginny tugged on Luna’s hand, to tired to talk about stars, about death. She thought about her mum down in the kitchen with the house-elves getting breakfast prepared and tugged on Luna’s hand again. “There are still things to do.”

“Yes.” Luna nodded letting Ginny tug her down the stairs after a last look at where the sun was rising.

Ginny brought Luna down to the table where her family was, where Ron and Hermione were sitting to the right of Harry with a tiny muggle chess set in front of them, where Percy was sitting to eat but only because Bill and Charlie had shoved him into the chair across from Ron, and Neville was sitting between Percy and Hannah with dirt still under their fingernails. She sat on Harry’s lap and pulled Luna down beside her. Despite each of them having a bowl of porridge not one of them was really eating much of it.

The next time Bill came by Percy jumped up to ask what else needed doing and it was like a spell was broken. Hannah and Neville said something about greenhouses and disappeared, Hermione wandered off and Ron went after her. Luna stood up as though to drift off and disappear again so Ginny left Harry in the great hall and went after her. Ginny was sure someone would put Harry to work but the others were liable to let Luna fade into the background.

“Let’s go help clean the courtyard.” Ginny caught Luna’s hand and dragged her off in that direction. Neither of them had ever been much good at cleaning charms but there was so much dust and rubble even the worst charms were helpful.

“It must be hard to be a ghost.” Luna said in that loose musing way she had sometime around the twenty minute mark of cleaning.

“What?”

“The ghosts.” She gestured to where a long haired ghost was hovering around a boy with glasses, giving him pointers on his wand work. “They live here but they can’t help, couldn’t fight either.”

Ginny stared for a long moment while Luna waited for her to find words, Luna was always waiting for people to find words. “I never thought about it.”

“Except peeves, he was dropping Weasley tricks the whole battle.” Luna said after a moment. Ginny tensed at the train of thought that brought. “I should ask them what it’s like to fly.”

Ginny stared at Luna, ignoring the growing cold in her gut in favour of focusing on the strange expression Luna wore. “You don’t need to be a ghost to fly.”

Twenty minutes later Ginny and Luna were between the forest and the quidditch pitch with a broom Ginny had nicked from the school’s broom shed. Ginny kicked off with Luna perched on the broom in front of her and they soared into the air. Once in the air Luna leaned so far Ginny had to keep an arm wrapped around her middle just to stop her from falling off the broom.

From this high in the air Ginny could see the tent Hermione had set up the night before. Sitting in front of it were Harry, Ron, and Hermione, so close together they almost looked like one person. She turned and shot off in a wide circle around the edges of the quidditch pitch. She paused and watched for a moment as Neville and Hannah put the walls of the greenhouse back together. Then Luna shifted and the broom twisted in midair, nearly going into a nosedive. Ginny regained control and pulled up, shooting so close to the tops of the trees that Luna reached out and ran her fingers along them.

When they finally landed it was in a clearing in the forest where the light was still dim despite the sun being high in the sky. Ginny heard a crunch behind her and she whirled around to see Luna already reaching a hand out towards a skeletal looking horse with wings that was walking towards them.

“Don’t worry, it’s just the thestrals.” Luna turned to smile dreamily at Ginny while the thestral bumped her hand with it’s nose. “They remember you.”

Ginny tried to speak and just made a noise in the back of her throat. Luna caught her around the waist as she stumbled. Leaning on Luna she just managed to croak her words out. “I can see them now.”

“They’re gentle really.” Her voice was quieter now. “Just reminders that our dead never really leave us.”

“Oh.” Ginny leaned on Luna’s shoulder and watched the thestrals move around them while Luna murmured words she didn’t know and couldn’t decide if they were nonsense or not. As the last twenty-four hours truly sank in at last she was rather glad for the dim light and Luna’s shoulder.


End file.
